Iran raised fresh doubts Saturday about the credibility of American diplomatic efforts following renewed naval confrontations in the Persian Gulf, while continuing to withhold a formal response to Washington’s latest ceasefire and negotiation proposal.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he expected Tehran’s answer to the latest American proposal for extending the fragile truce and beginning broader peace negotiations, saying the response was expected “supposedly tonight.”

As of Saturday, however, no public indication had emerged that Iran had delivered a reply through Pakistani mediators, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi openly questioned Washington’s commitment to diplomacy during a conversation with Turkey’s foreign minister.

“The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” he said, according to an Iranian account of the call published by the ISNA news agency.

The comments followed a confrontation Friday in which a U.S. warplane fired upon and disabled two Iranian-flagged oil tankers that American officials accused of violating the naval blockade surrounding Iranian ports.

An Iranian military official later told domestic media outlets that Iran’s navy had answered “to American terrorism with strikes” and that “the clashes have now ceased”.

The latest exchange came after another escalation overnight Thursday into Friday near the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic shipping route that Iran has sought to dominate in order to impose fees on foreign vessels and gain economic leverage over the United States and allied countries.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Friday that it was “unacceptable” for Tehran to control the vital oil corridor.

The United States has delivered a proposal to Iran through Pakistani intermediaries seeking to prolong the Gulf ceasefire and create space for negotiations aimed at ending the conflict that began 10 weeks ago following joint American-Israeli strikes against Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Friday that Tehran was still reviewing the proposal, according to ISNA.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani also met Friday in Washington with Vice President JD Vance, where the two discussed Pakistan-led mediation efforts aimed at securing a long-term settlement.

Iran has targeted locations inside Qatar during the conflict, citing the country’s hosting of a major American military air base.

Meanwhile, satellite imagery revealed a growing oil slick near Iran’s Kharg Island, one of the Islamic Republic’s main oil export hubs.

The cause of the spill was not immediately known. Monitoring organization Orbital EOS estimated that the slick, located off the island’s western shoreline, stretched across more than 20 square miles.

A British-based environmental monitoring group, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, told AFP that by Saturday the spill had significantly diminished and may have originated from damaged oil infrastructure.

Kharg Island serves as a central pillar of Iran’s oil export economy and is located in the Persian Gulf north of the Strait of Hormuz.

After the war erupted on February 28, Iran largely shut down traffic through the strait, sending global energy markets into turmoil and sharply increasing oil prices. In response, the United States later established its own naval blockade targeting Iranian ports.

Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. military would launch a naval mission intended to reopen the waterway for commercial shipping, though he reversed course two days later and instead opted to pursue renewed diplomatic negotiations.

Sources in Saudi Arabia told AFP that Riyadh refused to allow American forces to use Saudi bases or airspace for the planned Hormuz operation. One source said Saudi leaders “felt it would just escalate the situation and would not work”.

At the same time, tensions are also resurfacing in Lebanon despite a recent ceasefire there.

Lebanese state media reported that three strikes hit areas south of Beirut on Saturday even though a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah has technically been in effect for three weeks.

An AFP journalist at the scene reported seeing two damaged vehicles along a highway connecting Beirut to southern Lebanon, about 20 kilometers from the capital, while emergency personnel responded nearby.

The attacks came ahead of planned direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon scheduled to take place next week in Washington. Hezbollah has strongly opposed the upcoming talks between the two countries, which have officially remained at war since 1948.

{Matzav.com}